Psalm 35: When You Feel Attacked

When you feel attacked, your instincts kick in fast: fight back, run away, or freeze. Psalm 35 gives us another option that’s both painfully honest and deeply grounded: take it to the Lord. Pastor Brandon walks us through David’s words line by line, showing how Scripture gives you language for the moment people lie about you, twist your motives, or seem to enjoy your trouble. 

We talk about the real-life emotions that show up when you’re under pressure, including anger, confusion, and that desire for instant payback. David doesn’t hide any of it. He prays for God to defend him, to expose what’s false, and to bring justice. And we dig into why that kind of raw prayer isn’t “bad prayer” when it’s brought to God as relationship, not performance. If you’ve been searching for biblical help with gossip, false accusations, betrayal, or spiritual stress, Psalm 35 meets you right where you are. 

Then we make the turn David makes: from venting to trust. God cares about justice more than we do, yet He also loves the people we’re angry at, which means His timing and methods may not match ours. We connect this to the promise that when we pray with thanksgiving, the peace of God guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. 

If you’re in a season where you feel attacked, press play, pray along with us, and let God carry what you can’t. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs it, and leave a five-star review so more people can find daily Bible breakdowns.

Transcript

Welcome And Daily Bible Rhythm

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Hey everyone and welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast. In this podcast, we will be breaking down the Bible one chapter a day. Whether you are a new believer or have been following Christ for a while, we believe that you will learn something new and fresh every single day. So thank you for joining us and let's get into breaking down the Bible together.

Psalm 35 And Feeling Attacked

SPEAKER_00 0:23

Well, everybody, welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, Pastor Brandon. Today, Psalm chapter 35. And today's title is When You Feel Attacked. When you feel attacked. There is so many Psalms that teach us how to relate to God. And I think a really good question is, how do I relate to God when I feel like people are coming against me? Now, maybe you've never felt that before, but there's a couple different ways you can feel this. You can feel this as in people are coming against me because I've kind of started it, you know, and then people are coming against me, and I was minding my own business. So part of my confusion is, what's up? Why are we dealing with this? Well, no matter what it is, it's important that we get God involved when we feel like we're being attacked. And God's word teaches us how to get God involved when that happens. And so we're gonna hit all that in just a second. So whether you've ever felt attacked before or if it's gonna happen in the future, God's word's got you covered. So we're gonna get into all that. Make sure you get your Bibles out, make sure you get your Bible journals out. Also, make sure you take just a second and like, share, and subscribe to the YouTube channel and the podcast. Make sure you leave a five-star review on the podcast. It really does help. And make sure you're going to the Bible breakdown discussion on Facebook. That's an amazing group of people doing a wonderful job there every day. And you can get all that information by going to the Biblebreakdown.com because more we dig, the more we find.

Fight Flight Freeze When Targeted

SPEAKER_00 1:47

Well, we are going through what we are calling the soundtrack for life. And it's a collection of the greatest hits of the people of God from Moses to Malachi. And it's the word of God teaching us how to relate to God. We we've been saying that the book of Psalms teaches us how to relate to God, and the book of Proverbs teaches us how to relate to people. And I love how over 150 Psalms, almost half of them written by David, today's is written by David as well. It teaches us how to relate to God in the different seasons of life. When we're young, when we're old, when we're on road trips, you know, in the morning and night, all this kind of stuff. And then today it's when you feel attacked. And I'm gonna assume that whether we have been or not, I would say most of us have been in seasons when we have felt like we were being attacked. We felt like either either physically or people were gossiping, you know, saying things about us. And many times when we feel attacked, you know, we we have like the fight, flight, or freeze mechanism in our life, right? We have the fight. We feel attacked, we want to attack back. You know, I'm gonna, I'm gonna teach you not to attack me by whatever you, whatever you do to me, I'm gonna do twice as much to you. There's that. Then you've got the flight. So whenever you feel attacked, you run off. You know, you, you, you kind of hide in your shell and that kind of stuff, feel very intimidated. And a lot of people just freeze. When they feel attacked, they don't know what to do. I remember watching, you know, uh, one of my daughters one time, you know, she had not really been picked on a whole lot in her life at that point. And I saw her getting picked on one day and she didn't know how to react to it. I mean, she didn't like like freeze like you would think. It was just she she didn't know whether to hit the girl, she didn't know to run away. She's like, now she was used to getting picked on by her sister. You know, they did that all the time, but by somebody else, she ended up kind of freezing. It's like, what do I do with this? You know, and and many times we can feel like that. Well, God's word teaches us about a moment when David is obviously feeling very attacked in this moment, and he did what we should always do. He takes it to the Lord. God, this is what's going on in my life. And so He's gonna, God's Word is gonna teach us through this psalm what David did on what we can do when we feel under attack.

Reading Psalm 35 Out Loud

SPEAKER_00 3:58

So let's read God's word together and let's see what it has to say to us today. Chapter 35, verse one says this, O Lord, oppose those who oppose me. Fight for those or fight those who fight against me. Put on your armor and take up your shield. Prepare for battle and come to my aid. Lift up your spear and javelin against those who pursue me. Let me hear you say, I will give you victory. Bring shame and disgrace on those who are trying to kill me. Turn them back and humiliate those who want to harm me. Blow them away like chaff in the wind, a wind sent by the angel of the Lord. Make their path dark and slippery, with the angel of the Lord pursuing them. I did them no wrong, but they laid a trap for me. I did them no wrong, but they dug a pit to catch me. So let sudden ruin come upon them. Let them be caught in the trap they set for me. Let them be destroyed in the pit they dug for me. Then I will rejoice. I will be glad because he rescued me. With every bone in my body I will praise him. Lord, who can compare with you? Who else rescues the helpless from the strong? Who else protects the helpless and poor from those who rob them? Malicious witnesses testify against me. They accuse me of crimes I know nothing about. They repay me evil for good. I am sick of despair with despair. Yet when they see what yet when they were ill, I grieved for them. I denied myself by fasting for them. But my prayers returned unanswered. I was sad, as though they were my friends or family, as if I were grieving for my own mother. But now they are they are glad now that I am in trouble. They gleefully joined together against me. I am attacked by people I don't even know. They slander me constantly. They mock me and call me names. They snarl at me. How long, O Lord, will you look on and do nothing? Rescue me from their fierce attacks, protect my life from these lions. Then I will thank you in front of the great assembly. I will praise you before all these people. Don't let my treacherous enemies rejoice over my defeat. Don't let them hate me without cause and gloat over my sorrow. They don't talk of peace. They plot against innocent people who mind their own business. They shout, aha, aha. With our own eyes we saw him do it. O Lord, you know all about this. Don't stay silent. Don't do not abandon me now, O Lord. Wake up, rise to my defense, take up my case, my God and my Lord. Declare me not guilty, O Lord, my God, for you give justice. Don't let my enemies laugh about me and my troubles. Don't let them say, Look, we've got what he we wanted. Now we will let him alive. May those who rejoice in my troubles be humiliated and disgraced. May those who triumph over me be covered with shame and dishonor. But with great joy to those, but give great joy to those who come to my defense. Let them continually say, Great is the Lord who delights in blessing his servant with peace. Then I will proclaim your justice, and I will praise you all day long.

Honest Prayer Then Choosing Trust

SPEAKER_00 7:21

Well, David didn't stumble over his words like I did, but the bottom line is the first thing he did when he felt attacked was he was honest with God. He went to God and he prayed for God to get him back. You know what I mean? God, sick him, Jesus, you know, kind of things like get him back. And it's okay in prayer to be honest. You know, one of the things I think is just so sad about prayer is when we think of prayer as a as only a discipline, but not as a relationship. Like God already knows when you're angry about it. So be angry with God. It's okay if you go to prayer and go, God, I just need you to just tear them up, Jesus. I mean, come on, man. They are they are accusing me of stuff I didn't do and they're claiming they saw me do something I didn't do. Just get them, Jesus. That's okay. It's okay to pray that. As long as at the bottom line, you go, but you know what, God? I trust you. And that's what David is doing when he's finishing his psalm is he's saying, you know what, I'm angry, I'm upset, they're lying on me, they're doing all this kind of stuff. But you know what, God? I'm gonna worship you. I'm gonna rejoice that you have been faithful in the past, you are faithful now, you're gonna be faithful in the future. You know what we do when we feel attacked? We take it to the Lord. We take it to him. And then we celebrate the fact that he knows. And God is more interested than justice than we are. At the same time, we have to realize that God also loves them. And so just like when we have attacked other people, yo, and he is having mercy on us, God will have mercy on them because he also loves them. At the same time, he's interested in justice, and so we trust the Lord. We trust that there's gonna be a season of grace on their life because he's trying to reach them as well. But ultimately, God will vindicate the innocent. And so we trust him. So here's what I want to tell you. If you're in a season where you feel like you're being attacked, trust the Lord. Talk to him, be honest with him, and be raw and honesty. Tell God, kill him, Jesus. You know what I mean? You know, and then then take that back because you don't need to pray that. But you know, but be honest. And then afterwards say, But you know what? I trust you. And I trust that you're gonna do the right thing. And I trust you that you're probably not gonna do it my way because I don't know what to do. I'm just mad right now. And God knows He's not mad at you for it. And then when you eventually you just get all that out, and then you just say, But you know what? I trust you. The Bible says that when we pray, we ask, and with thanksgiving, we pray to the Lord about what's going on in our lives, he says, then the peace of God, which passes understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. On the other side of that prayer is a peace that passes

Peace That Passes Understanding

SPEAKER_00 9:59

understanding. Let's pray together right now. God, thank you so much for today. Thank you for that peace that passes understanding. Thank you for the opportunity to pray and talk to you and say the difficult things out loud when we talk to you. And know, Lord, that when we talk to you and we are we pray and we're honest, whether you don't condemn us for it, but you welcome those honest moments. I pray, God, that you'll give us those moments so that our trust in you can grow in all things. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Well, God's word says in Psalm 34, verse 1, say it with me. He says, I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for Psalm chapter 36.